Shortlisted
A Spark of Light in Darkness
Evangel College, Vanessa Robin Lam, 13
M
y nose twitched when I felt something blowing against my face. Ignoring it, I turned
to lie down on my left side with my eyes still closed. It was much cooler than usual.
In fact, my bed even felt softer than usual. I searched roughly for my blanket with
my hand, my eyes still shut tightly, but I failed miserably.
‘Where is it? Ah! It’s freezing!’ I thought to myself and finally gave in. I sat up and opened
my eyes in annoyance, but the sight in front of me made me doubt that I wasn’t dreaming. In
astonishment, I rubbed my eyes, and pinched myself to reconfirm that I was in reality. I couldn’t
help myself but scream at the top of my voice, ‘What’s going on?’
Everything was dark except for the twinkling stars in the sky.
‘Where am I?’ I wondered as I stood up. I was all alone, in the cold darkness. I looked around
unknowingly and noticed an ancient-like scroll and a small torch on the sand next to me.
‘Welcome to the Gobi Desert. To get back to Hong Kong, you will have to retrieve an important
item. Follow this map and you will find what you need.’ The words were written in cursive above
a map of the desert.
‘Gobi Desert? How did I end up here?’ I murmured to myself. Not even knowing if the map can
be trusted, I stood up and turned on the small torch that was lying next to the map. When I did
so, I noticed a tiny compass attached to the bottom of the torch.
With the help of them, I had already walked halfway through the route marked on the map.
By that time, the sun was slowly rising an gave out a brilliant radiance. The sand I stood on
sparkled in harmony with the sun while the sky slowly lit up.
My feet started to struggle to stand up. My eyes barely managing to stay open. After walking
through the entire night, I decided to take a nap. Lying against a nearby palm tree, I drifted to
sleep.
‘Hey, are you awake yet?’ a voice said, waking me up. I blinked to clear up my vision and
found myself in a hut.
‘Is something wrong?’ the owner of the voice asked and peered into my face with a curious
look, his dark eyes full of interest.
‘Nope. Thanks for bringing me here. I’m Derek.’ I said casually.
‘I’m Mason. Were you trying to look for something?’ he asked.
‘Yeah. I’m not from here. I just woke up and found myself in the middle of this desert. Now I
need to find a way to go back.’ I said while taking out the map that I found.
‘I think I know the way to your destination. Do you want me to go with you?’ Mason offered.
‘Definitely!’ I said and flashed a smile.
‘Is it okay if my cousin tags along too?’ Mason asked in his deep husky voice.
‘I don’t mind, I guess.’ I answered with a shrug. That was when a girl who looked about my
age, walked into the hut.
‘I assume that’s your cousin?’ I asked Mason.
‘You’re right. Derek, this is Nina. He introduced. After explaining, we set off to our quest. But
of course, things didn’t go as we hoped so.
We quickly made our way up a slope. As we were walking, I looked down and found that the
